At present, official postage stamps are designed to accept a cancellation mark as the stamp passes through the postal sorting equipment. The cancellation mark shows the stamp has been used as postage on a piece of mail and cannot be used again. With the advent of the personalized postage stamp as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,605 a consumer can submit a personal image and have the personal image become part of the postage stamp 10 as shown in FIG. 1. The stamp 10 comprises an official postal image (indicia) 20 printed in an official postal image area 24 bordered on the inside border by lines 25, 26, 27, and 28 and on the outside edge by perforations 30. The stamp 10 includes a personal image 40 lying inside the personal image area 45 bordered by the lines 25, 26, 27, and 28. The personalized postage stamp 10 can be created using several methods. Images that can be used for the personal image portion of the personalized postage stamp 10 can be consumer images obtained from a variety of sources. For example, but not limited to, consumer image files stored in digital format on floppy disks, Picture CDs, Photo CDs, CD-ROMs, down loaded from the Internet, and negatives and prints scanned using the consumer's own scanner.
Typically because of the high quality required, the official postal image 20 on a postage stamp 10 is printed first using a Gravure process. The Gravure process is capable of creating images of very high resolution, way beyond the capabilities of most common printers. The Gravure process is an intaglio process. It uses a depressed or sunken surface etched into a copper cylinder to create the image and the unetched surface of the cylinder represent non-printing areas. The cylinder rotates in a bath of ink and the etched area picks up the ink and transfers it to the media creating the image. Gravure printing is considered excellent for printing highly detailed marks or pictures and meet all the specifications required for printing an official postage stamp.
Since the personal image 40 is not part of the official postal stamp, meaning the official postal image 20 can be used as postage without the personalized image area 40, while the personalized image 40 cannot. The personal image 40 can be printed at a later time using for example, a thermal printer, wax sublimation printer, electro-photographic printer or ink jet printer directly onto the stamp 10 as shown in FIG. 1. The personal image 40 can be printed as a separate sticker 41 and adhered directly to the official stamp in a designated area 50 as shown in FIG. 2a such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,573. The personal image 40 can also be printed adjacent to or below the stamp 10 as shown in FIG. 2b and FIG. 2c respectively such as is disclosed in international patent application PCT/AU99/00346.
There are several problems with the systems and methods disclosed in the prior art. The first is when a postal product such as a stamp 10 with the personal image area 45 is affixed to an envelope 70 and used for postage. However, the postal product may be integrally part of a postcard, label or any other item now used for retaining official postage. The stamp cancellation device prints the cancellation mark 60 across the entire surface of the stamp 10 as shown in FIG. 3. For the purposes of the present invention an official postal product shall be defined as a product by itself or as affixed to another product and that is recognized as official postage, which can be used to send items through the official governmental postal system. The cancellation mark 60 extends across the official postal area 24 of the stamp 10 as well as the personal image area 45 thus obscuring the personalized portion. A typical official United States postage stamp is printed with inks that have a pigment, when excited by ultraviolet light at a peak wavelength of 254 nanometers, phosphoresce in the visible (green) region of the spectrum with a peak wavelength of 526 nanometers. Current equipment in the post office is used for scanning of the postage for verifying that it is authentic postage and to locate where the stamp is on the envelope for cancellation. Because of the nature of the equipment used to print the cancellation mark no attempt is made to place the cancellation mark other than to ensure the mark is printed across a portion of the stamp.
The present invention provides a method and system for customizing an official postal product that solves many of the problems of the prior art. The method and system also provides high quality images on official postal products having the required quality, characteristics, and content standards.